Tag: Power BI

Oracle Discoverer is de-supported as of July 1, 2017. You’ve likely started to evaluate self-service alternatives, but how complex is the actual migration?

“Extended Support” Ended After June 30, 2017

The general consensus is that Disco music died on July 12, 1979 after the infamous “Disco Demolition” event host ed by Chicago radio disk jockey Steve Dahl. Even though artists continued to release Disco records during the early 1980’s, the populace had already lifted and shifted to a different genre.

If you use Oracle E-Business Suite or Banner, you’re probably familiar with Oracle Discoverer, a 20-year ad-hoc querying and analysis reporting tool that has officially retired as of June 30th, 2017. Since 2009 Oracle has been transparent about its strategic direction for business intelligence, so the announcement of retirement does not come as a shock to those still using Discoverer.

Numerous BI and reporting platforms have been released since Discoverer reached its apex. As we lift and shift to a new standard of self-service reporting, it’s imperative to select a scalable, sustainable, and cost-effective replacement that solves existing business needs, eliminates the possibility of “shadow BI” projects, and is desired by both end users and IT.

Discoverer Replacement & Migration Options

Do nothing

OBIEE / BI Foundation Suite

Tableau

Power BI

Migration Automation

1. Do nothing

If it’s not broken, why fix it? There still exists the option to upgrade to the latest release 11gR1, and utilize the pre-packaged integration with Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) and Oracle EBS Federal Financials.

While day-to-day reporting and licensing will remain the same, the cost of a few iterations can exceed that of a replacement or migration project. There’s also the potential of failed integration with later versions of E-Business Suite, and any new desktop, browser, or Windows OS updates. Additionally, migration is necessary to remain compatible with the latest Oracle E-Business Suite R12.2.x releases, Oracle Database 12c, and to use any of Oracle’s Fusion Applications.

Inevitably, both business and users will need a more accessible solution that provides stronger data visualizations and interactivity. Continued usage increases the complexity of transforming that data into actionable insights to support strategic decision making.

2. BI Foundation Suite / OBIEE

Oracle Business Intelligence (Enterprise Edition), OBIEE, is part of Oracle’s strategic road map for business intelligence.

From what we’ve encountered helping customers migrate, OBIEE is often selected because they already own the licenses and can spin it up faster than implementing and migrating to another application. OBIEE is still “in” support, and can be interfaced directly with Oracle EBS, Fusion, and Forms, which makes it an ideal choice for Oracle customers running Discoverer. Customers who wanted analytics and dashboards tended to choose OBIEE, while those looking for day-to-day operational reporting gravitated towards other (non-Oracle) applications.

While OBIEE delivers what it promises, an army of reporting tools for executives and end users alike, it’s important to consider the time, cost, and effort required before, during, and after implementation and Discoverer migration.

Migration from Discoverer to OBIEE

Migrating from Discoverer to OBIEE is complex. For starters, there are no tools available to automatically migrate workbooks, which means all queries must be re-created from scratch.

Many elements cannot be migrated simply because there is no equivalent in OBIEE. These include: item classes, summary folders, optional conditions, complex folders (either dimensions or based on complex folders), and hierarchies based on complex folders. Click to read the full list.

Based on the Oracle Technology Global Price List, the cost to license OBI or Essbase may not provide due diligence if you require a composite of features not limited to a single application.

Training, Maintenance, and SupportThere is a considerable learning curve in OBIEE, which requires learning multiple tools and aspects of business intelligence in order to make it work well together. After migrating off Discoverer, a substantial amount of RPD modeling work and dashboard preparation is required for end users to start utilizing OBIEE. Additionally, maintenance and support will require hiring additional resources.

3. Tableau

Tableau’s powerful packaged BI offering, Tableau Desktop, allows users to drag and drop to analyze data, connect to data in a few clicks, and visualize and create interactive dashboards with a few more.

Over the course of our past Discoverer to Tableau migration projects, the primary factors for selecting Tableau has ranged from the amount of available features, data visualizations, scalability via ease-of-upgrade, and affordable licensing.

ennVee’s Discoverer migration accelerator automatically transfers all reports and objects to Tableau. Provided below is an example to highlight the comparison of between a Sales Orders report before and after migration.

What makes Power BI an attractive replacement for Discoverer is the “out of box” data modeling and self-service analytics capabilities. We have helped many customers migrate to Power BI by way of our accelerator, which automatically extracts complete Discoverer reports and imports them into Power BI without requiring a rebuild.

Power BI and Power BI Desktop are available to use for free, while Discoverer power users may opt for the Pro version ($9.99/user/month). The Pro version is required in order to migrate from Discoverer, as it is the only version that enables users to share data, security details, roles, and access information.

A Min Max report in DiscovererAnd after migrating to Power BI

Aside from cost-effective licensing, Discoverer migration to Power BI has become a feasible route for the growing number of companies that are switching over to Office365. If you’re in the process of moving to Office365, Discoverer to Power BI migration would be a synergistic side-effect.

Our accelerator completes the Discoverer migration in 2-10 weeks. We provide a live interactive demonstration, PoC, and assessment free of cost. The cost of the actual migration is fixed based on the number and complexity of reports.

Oracle Discoverer will no longer receive support after June 2017. ennVee has developed a cost-effective tool that helps businesses migrate all Discoverer data into Microsoft Power BI.

What’s your exit strategy?

After June 2017, the inevitable will occur- Oracle will no longer support its business intelligence tool, Discoverer. Organizations will no longer receive Discoverer support and are at risk of not being able to integrate with your other applications as they continue to receive new patches and updates.

The thought of even having a backup plan is overwhelming but again, inevitable. The demand to migrate to another BI tool is overwhelming and one that is not accounted for in your budget. Companies are shying away from Discoverer’s savvy and more expensive cousin, OBIEE. The cost is significantly higher than Discoverer, but all reports and data could be migrated without much issue. What if there was a way to reduce the cost complexity entirely?

Consider this…Migrating to Microsoft Power BI

ennVee TechnoGroup has developed a custom tool that automatically migrates all Discoverer workbooks and sheets into Power BI. The tool enables Discoverer users to maintain all filters and data with the increased ability to generate meaningful graphs. Microsoft’s Power BI application is packaged into all Office 365 subscriptions (along with Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.) at no additional cost. It provides similar functionalities as Discoverer including: ad hoc querying, data analysis, reporting, and publishing capabilities, all at a similarly structured price (‘Pro’ version billed annually per user, or ‘Free’ version packaged into Office 365).

How does this impact your business?

A single workbook can be displayed in one dashboard and shared across users